English 222 Assignment—Report on Career Path TCBoK
The Career Path assignment for TCBoK is basically a research report and therefore needs to follow many of
the conventions for report style. As with all professional documents, single space the paragraphs, double
space between, no paragraph indents. Use levels of headings, preferably all flush left. You can distinguish
level with type style and size. The final report should be no more than 5 pages, not counting title page and
references.
For additional information, check your text, particularly Ch. 13, although this report does not need to be as
formal and comprehensive as the sample in that chapter. For this assignment, please include the following
elements:
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Cover Page: follow the sample in your text (title, names of team members, date)
•
Text Itself: see discussion below
•
List of References: the bibliography page should look like a typical references page. Please use APA
style. For APA style, check pages A-24 and A-25 in your text. Also check the Purdue Owl for correct
APA style. The link is on the course website.
WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU NEED TO INCLUDE?
Define the job
First, these terms for particular jobs are often a little vague, or fuzzy, or broadly defined. So the first task is to
define exactly what position you are talking about. You may want to discuss the fact that, for example, the
term “technical writer” covers a lot of territory. As with a lot of research topics, you need to narrow this
broad area and define the scope of the topic that you will cover in this report. Don’t be dismayed if you can’t
cover all the territory; focus on the most common, with perhaps a side reference to other possibilities.
Describe typical job responsibilities
What does the person holding this job typically do? What are the job responsibilities. Again, depending upon
the industry or type of organization, a technical writer, for example, can do a lot of different things. But what
is common or usual. What would you be expected to know or do if you held this position.
Keep in mind as well the documents you would produce in this position. Michelle Stofa, for example,
produces fully edited medical articles for doctors who publish in professional journals, as well as other
documents. Leigh Figurelli produces training materials that teach people how to use the company’s software.
Define knowledge and skills required
Not surprisingly, these days most professional positions require at least a Bachelor’s degree. But does this
position require additional education, perhaps in a cognate field. We have heard a couple of speakers with
jobs in technical disciplines that, nevertheless, don’t require science degrees.
Most jobs also require some software or computer skills. Is it sufficient to know MS Word, or do you need to
know Excel, or InDesign, or Dreamweaver, or Visio, or some other software? Do you need to know a
programming language?
Describe experience required
When you look at typical job ads for this position, what kind of experience, and how much, do they ask for?
Advanced or management positions may require 10 or more years of experience, and they may ask for
particular kinds of experience, such as managing team projects with 10 or more participants.
Additional information
The sources of your information compiled in this report, and other sources for web browsers interested in
exploring further, are critical to this report. So, in this section, include the names of additional sources, their
URLs, and a brief description of what readers might find if they followed this link. This section is different
from your bibliographic sources, although they could overlap.
For additional editing information, please see the TCBoK webpages (http://stcbok.editme.com/EditingChecklist-0)
Web Page
For this assignment, you are also to cull from this report the most useful and salient information for
presentation on the TCBoK wiki webpages. Basically, it will be a condensed version of the entire report,
and you can use the same headings. Because it is a web page, you should provide a basic overview on
the first page, with links to additional information.
Depending on your team policies, you may want to assign the web page to a different member from
the person editing the final version of the report.
Presentation
The last three days of class time are reserved for presentations; the schedule is posted on the course
web site. Please include the PowerPoint, or other presentation product, that you use.
Final Report Assessment
By Friday, Dec. 7, please send me a brief memo assessing the contribution of your team members on
this final project. A brief memo is fine, perhaps with a pie chart. Ideally, if the team has 4 members,
each person did 25% of the work. Unfortunately this is not always the case. The report package itself
will be assigned a grade, but that grade can increase or decrease depending upon individual
contributions.